Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday charged a Dallas-area doctor with violating the state's ban on sex treatment of minors and concealing his activities with false insurance claims codes.
May Lau, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and medical director of the Adolescent and Young Adult Clinic at Children's Medical Center Dallas, said she has approached at least 21 underage female patients seeking “sexual transition.” He is charged with prescribing testosterone. ” to the man.
Lau's actions violate Senate Bill 14 (SB 14), a law passed by the Texas Legislature and signed by Governor Greg Abbott in May 2023. According to Paxton's complaint, SB 14 “prohibits the use of surgical procedures, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones in women.” The purpose of transitioning a child's biological sex or affirming a child's belief that his or her gender identity is inconsistent with his or her biological sex. ”
The law went into effect on September 1, 2023, and was upheld by the Texas Supreme Court in June 2024.
The lawsuit begins as follows:
The debate in Texas over the legality of a dangerous, experimental medical procedure that seeks to convert or affirm a child's belief that their gender identity does not match their biological sex is over.
“Today, the crackdown on those who violate the law begins,” the magazine declared.
The state alleges that “Lau is a detractor who is endangering the health and safety of minors.” In addition, Lau is a “false, misleading person who intends to mislead pharmacies, insurance companies, and/or patients by falsifying medical records, prescriptions, and billing records to indicate that a prescription for testosterone is appropriate.” , engaged in deceptive acts and practices and violated state law.” There are purposes other than transitioning a child's biological sex. ”
Transition period
Paxton characterizes Lau as a “radical gender activist,” and for good reason. She “has published extensively advocating the medical transition of a child's biological sex,” he writes. In addition,
Lau was previously affiliated with the now-disbanded Gender Education and Care Interdisciplinary Support (GENECIS) program. The program was dedicated to providing medical intervention to transition a child's biological sex.
Along with the director of GENECIS, Lau co-authored “several publications advocating for medical transition for minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria.”
Lau further vindicated her gender activist status in a 2020 presentation titled “Transgender Care for Youth and Adults.” Some of her surprising confessions include:
She changes patients' medical records to reflect their preferred name, gender, and pronouns each time they change their mind. “The safety and long-term effects of puberty suppression in young people with gender dysphoria are poorly understood.” “top surgery'' (i.e., double mastectomy) was offered to young people who were not present.
hormone jar rings
In his complaint, Paxton alleges that the activist World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) recommends prescribing testosterone cypionate in a futile but dangerous effort to transform female adolescents into males. However, both the Mayo Clinic and the Food and Drug Administration have noted that. Officials say the hormone should not be given to women.
Nevertheless, the state alleges that Mr. Lau did the same thing at least 21 times. The lawsuit details the backgrounds of the minors under Lau's care. Despite Lau's ever-changing medical records, all claim to be biologically female for whom Lau prescribed testosterone cypionate. In some cases, hormones were prescribed after SB 14 took effect. In other instances, she prescribed it before the law's effective date but instructed patients to fill it out after that date.
Paxton argues that
Lau cannot circumvent SB 14 by writing a prescription for a patient before SB 14 takes effect and writing an order to refill or refill the prescription after it takes effect. This is because a “prescription” order is not a single, discrete act, but a continuous therapeutic act. . (Emphasis in original.)
Such conduct, which also has the effect of “providing” a drug at the time of filling a prescription, would also violate SB 14 if done after September 1, 2023.
code switching
Mr. Paxton further alleges that Mr. Lau used false billing codes to cause insurance companies to compensate him for sex-discriminatory treatment that the insurance companies would deny. This is a move supported by the LGBTQ activist group Southern Equality Campaign in a fact sheet. It doesn't appear to be online anymore, but it's still referenced on the website.
As an example of this behavior, Paxton points to one patient, a 15-year-old biological male, whom Lau diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Lau inserted a puberty-blocking device into his patients, but “fraudulently billed (his) insurance using a diagnosis code for an endocrine disorder,” the suit says. Several months later, she changed the patient's gender to female in medical and billing records.
The patient then met with Dr. Izzy Rowell of Queer Med, who specializes in treating transgender patients. The state alleges that Lowell also billed these visits as treatment for an endocrine disorder.
During this time, another provider who saw the patient at Children's Medical Center in Dallas “correctly used the gender dysphoria billing code,” Paxton claims. Therefore, Lau and Lowell must have been intentionally trying to hide what they were doing.
The state is asking the court to issue an injunction against “Lau and all persons actively concerting or participating with her” and imposing fines of up to $10,000 for each violation.
Paxton said in a press release:
Texas passed a law to protect children from these dangerous, unscientific medical interventions that have irreversible and harmful effects. Doctors who continue to offer these harmful “sex change” drugs and treatments will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
